Orange You Hungry

Today's bento is full of color and different foods from the food pyramid helped along by lots of leftovers. Backed chicken breast, steamed white rice, ginger, soy/mirin glazed eggplant, clementine wedges, mixed nuts/dried fruit and mini treat. Wow a feast...

Boring Bento # 21

Some days lunch is just lunch. Today is one of those days. This bento is last nights supper with edamame tossed in for added nutrition. It's typical school night fare. Barbeque baked chicken breast, steamed white rice, furitake and microwaved edamame. Seems awefully tame compared to some of my October Bentos but that's life in the fast lane. I did toss in a piece of Halloween candy for dessert at the last minute. A Saint I am not! Have a great day.

Trick or Treat Bento #17

Halloween Bento lunch composed of Cashew Chicken, white rice, orange slices and pumpkin bread. How can I resist the urge to nibble before lunch. I am really looking forward to Halloween this year even though my kidlets are all too big to Trick or Treat. Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. I am very partial to candy. The pumpkin bread was at special request of my dh. He saw pumpkin muffins in Whole Foods today for $2.50 a piece. Despite the fact that he was drooling I couldn't bring myself to spend that kind of money on one muffin. Instead I went home and made two (2lb.) loaves from ingredients I had on hand. Does that make the pumpkin bread free? I did only pay .25 cents for the can of pumpkin several months ago. One loaf is destined for the deep freezer, the other loaf will be history in short order. YUM!

Deliteful, Delicious De Bento # 15

Today's bento is guaranteed to be deliteful and delicious since it is composed of last night's leftovers. We really enjoyed supper. The lower box is filled with chicken piccata and roasted mixed vegetables. The top boxes are my snack for the afternoon since I stay at school to tutor until 5 PM. The top is composed of non-fat vanilla yogurt with chopped walnuts for topping and one cup of grapes. I can't wait for lunchtime.

Greek Bento #13

Lunch today is composed of leftovers from last night's supper. the stew-like portion is boneless chicken thighs that have been slow cooked with carrot, onion, mushroom, red wine and tomato. It does not translate to a very attractive photo but it is very tasty. The bottom two boxes have my snack 0% Fat Greek Yogurt and apricot halves. The bento box is a bundle from Borders bookstore called Pet Champz by Paperchase. These are the smaller boxes of four that nest in each other to store. They are watertight and great when you have lots of gooey stuff that you don't want to intermix. I use this style alot.

Mainly Meatball Bento #12

Todays bento is directly from the freezer. The main ingredient are Japanese meatballs that were featured for dinner several weeks ago. The meatballs are adorned with sugar eyes. I still can't figure out how to attach them securely. I may find one eyed monsters in my box at lunch time. Oh well, Halloween is just around the corner. The meatballs are surrounded by mandarin orange slices since it definitely needed some color. The second box is filled with celery hearts stuffed with laughing cow cheese, cherry tomatoes, and baby carrots. The dip is ranch dressing which I will use sparingly. The boxes are my new treat from Japan. They are clickety click boxes single tier that read "My name is Mink and I love to read the fantasy story. I am very excited when I read."

Funny Face Bento#11

This bento is exactly how I was feeling last night after a very stressful couple of days. Does he look a little moody to you or just plain peeved. I think I have been a little of both. In any case, Mr. Concerned is my first attempt at a funny face bento. He is composed of some really delicious leftover Mediterranean chicken with artichoke, couscous, fresh rolls and mozzarella cheese. I'll probably toss an apple in the sack to round off the meal. I hope he travels well.

Grilled Chicken Meatballs cooked on bamboo skewers

Grilled Chicken Meatballs:

This recipe is found in Greatest-Ever Sushi and Japanese Recipes by Emi Kazuro and Yasuko Fukuoka.This book listed for $7.99 in the bargain bin at Borders two weeks ago. I then got a discount of 40% with a coupon!!!

I don't want to sacrafice a sale for these authors so I'll just give a quick synopsis of the recipe.

Ingredients:

11 oz ground chicken, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp. salt, 2 tsp. cornflour, 6 tablespoons bread crumbs, 1 inch piece of grated ginger root.

In a nutshell, mix all ingredients but ginger. Make small meatballs, drop into boiling water with grated ginger added to the water. Boil the meatballs for 7 minutes until cooked through. Drain on a paper towel. Place onto bamboo skewers. Broil or grill until brown, top with Yakatori Sauce (ingredients below). Brush sauce on to meatballs and regrill several times to make them nicely coated. You can add shichimi togarashi or sansho to spice them up. These are red pepper blends. Yakatori Sauce is like Japanese BBQ sauce, basic recipe-4 tbsp sake, 5 tbsp. soy sauce, 1 tbsp. mirin, 1 tbsp. sugar, boil the ingredients gently for 10 minutes then add 1/2 tsp cornflour blended in 1 tsp water to thicken. Good Luck.

Yakatori Meatball Bento #8

Today's bento is composed of last night's cooking experiement. I made Japanese chicken meatballs with Yakatori sauce on bamboo skewers. The recipe called for creating tiny meatballs with ground chicken and other fillings. Then the recipe boils the meatballs. Very interesting, the boiling caused these little meatballs to puff up and I believe release most of the fat into the water. End result puffy, tender meatballs that were not greasy. Before finishing the recipe the meatballs are then towel dried, coated with Yakatori sauce and broiled for browning. Lots of work but they were good.
This bento contains one skewer of meatballs with cherry tomatoes, banana slices, green beans, white rice, yakatori sauce and furatake. Pretty fancy for a simple lunch. Have a great weekend.

Lady Bug Bento #3

Today's bento lunch is composed of egg noodles topped with cherry tomatoes and black sesame seeds in the bottom tier. The top tier is composed of steamed edamame, tori misoyaki (miso chicken) and red seedless grapes. The lady bugs are my attempt at art bento. I just can't imagine recreating lady bugs out of cherry tomatoes and sesame seeds at 5:30 in the morning. Maybe in the future I will muster the courage. But for now...bon appetite.

Bento Lunch # 1

I made two bento lunches today, one for myself and one for my daughter. This is her lunch. It is much prettier than mine. Her lunch included italian style breaded chicken breast, cherry tomatoes, mozarella cheese stick,and mandarin orange slices in the top tier. The bottom tier contained more chicken and handmade spring rolls filled with steamed cabbage and ginger chicken.